Review by CJ

Director:
Eli Roth

Starring:
Keanu Reeves, Lorenza Izzo, Ana de Armas, Ignacia Allamand

Running time:
99 minutes

Evan (Reeves) is a devoted husband and father. When his family goes on a holiday, he is forced to stay home and work. Evan’s peace, productivity and sanity come grinding to a halt when two girls arrive lost, cold and wet at his doorstep.

Knock Knock had the potential to be a gritty thriller and, with Eli Roth at the helm, I expected that or something really interestingly twisted. Instead, Knock Knock was dull and occasionally veered into sick territory.

One of the only redeeming things I can say about Knock Knock is that there were some great directorial choices. A repeated sweeping shot of the house’s layout during various stages of progression was beautiful to watch.

The other redeeming feature is that Ana de Armas does give a very good performance as Bel, one of the home invaders.

Other than those two points, Knock Knock is a film not gripping enough to be a psychological thriller, not chilling enough to be horror and lacks enough mystery to be, well, a mystery. At best this is a twisted drama with graphic and sometimes disturbing sex scenes about a man who suffers extraordinary punishment for cheating on his wife.

Knock Knock feels significantly longer than the 99 minute runtime and a lot of it was spent wanting to be doing anything else. I wouldn’t recommend Knock Knock to anyone unless I really didn’t like them and wanted to waste an hour and a half of their time.

Rating:

“Not everyone would let two total strangers into their house these days.”
“Well, you don’t look that dangerous.”